Acclaim for Billy Coffey “Billy Coffey is one of the most lyrical writers of our time. His latest work, The Devil Walks in Mattingly, is not a page-turner to be devoured in a one-night frenzy. Instead, it should be valued as a literary delicacy, with each savory syllable sipped slowly. By allowing ourselves to steep in this story, readers are treated to a delightful sensory escape one delicious word at a time. Even then, we leave his imaginary world hungry for more, eager for another serving of Coffey’s tremendous talent.” — J u l i e C a n t r el l , N e w Yor k Ti m es sel l i ng
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USA TODAY B e s t -
Wh e n M ounta i ns M ov e
“[A]n inspirational and atmospheric tale.” —L i br a ry J ou r nal
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“This intriguing read challenges mainstream religious ideas of how God might be revealed to both the devout and the doubtful.” —P u bl ish e r s We e k ly
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Wh e n M oc k i ngbi r ds S i ng
“Readers will appreciate how slim the line is between belief and unbelief, faith and fiction, and love and hate as supplied through this telling story of the human heart always in need of rescue.” — CBA R e ta i l e r s + R esou rc es
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“Billy Coffey is a minstrel who writes with intense depth of feeling and vibrant rich description. The characters who live in this book face challenges that stretch the deepest fabric of their beings. You will remember When Mockingbirds Sing long after you finish it.” — R obe rt W h i t low,
be s t - sel l i ng au t hor of
Th e C hoic e
“Some stories invite you in, but Billy Coffey’s When Mockingbirds Sing grabs you by the collar and embraces you flat out. Beautifully written with characters made of flesh and bone, Coffey haunts you with truth, compelling you to turn the page. His best book yet.” — M a ry D e M u t h ,
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“[When Mockingbirds Sing is] an engrossing novel on so many levels. A story of mystery, hope, opening our ears in a way we can truly hear, and the choice of belief. Coffey has penned a captivating tale that will linger with you long after the final page is turned.” — Ja m e s L. R u ba rt,
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S oul’ s G at e
“When Mockingbirds Sing is a lovely, dark, fervent tale that grips and won’t let go. At some point, I entered its pages so fully, the sky opened up and gale winds blew outside. It’s that good.” — N icol e S e i t z , and
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Th e I n h e r i tanc e
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“When Mockingbirds Sing by Billy Coffey made me realize how often we think we know how God works, when in reality we don’t have a clue. God’s ways are so much more mysterious than we can imagine. Billy Coffey is an author we’re going to be hearing more about. I’ll be looking for his next book!” — C ol l e e n C obl e , Ti de wat e r I nn a n d
be s t - sel l i ng au t hor of
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“When Mockingbirds Sing is a mesmerizing tale about believing in the unseen. From the vividly etched small town to the compelling characters—torn between fear and faith—there is much to savor in Coffey’s story.” — B et h W e bb H a rt,
au t hor of
M oon O v e r E dis t o
“A modern-day parable featuring a cast of colorful characters, [When Mockingbirds Sing] begs us all to step into the Maybe and have the faith of a child.” — M a ry bet h W h a l e n ,
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“Billy Coffey’s When Mockingbirds Sing will touch your heart and stir your soul.” — R ic h a r d L. M a bry, MD, S t r ess Tes t
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the devil walks in mattingly •••
Billy Coffe y
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© 2014 by Billy Coffey All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. Published in association with the literary agency of WordServe Literary Group, Ltd., 10152 S. Knoll Circle, Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80130. THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email SpecialMarkets@ ThomasNelson.com. Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coffey, Billy. The Devil walks in Mattingly / Billy Coffey. pages cm. Summary: “For the three people tortured by their secret complicity in a young man’s untimely death, redemption is what they most long for. and the last thing they expect to receive.It has been twenty years since Philip McBride’s body was found along the riverbank in the dark woods known as Happy Hollow. His death was ruled a suicide. But three people have carried the truth ever since ; Philip didn’t kill himself that day. He was murdered.Each of the three have wilted in the shadow of their sins. Jake Barnett is Mattingly’s sheriff, where he spends his days polishing the fragile shell of the man he pretends to be. His wife, Kate, has convinced herself the good she does for ; the poor will someday was ; the blood from her hands. And high in the mountains, Taylor Hathcock lives in seclusion; and fear, fueled by madness and hatred.Yet what cannot be laid to rest is bound to rise. Taylor finds mysterious footprints leading from the Hollow, he believes his redemption has come. His actions will plunge the quiet town of Mattingly into darkness. These three will be drawn together for a final confrontation between life and death. between truth and lies”— Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-4016-8822-6 (pbk.) 1. Secrets—Fiction. 2. Redemption—Fiction. I. Title. PS3603.O3165D48 2014 813’.6—dc23 2013041041 Printed in the United States of America 14 15 16 17 18 19 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For all who stumble forward by looking back.
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Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? A cts 2 6 : 8
The end of our exploring will be to arrive at where we started, and know the place for the first time. T . S . E liot
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. S hirley J ackson
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Publisher’s Note
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illy Coffey’s novels are all set in Mattingly, Virginia, and can be read in any order. If you’ve already read When Mockingbirds Sing, you may be interested in knowing that the events in The Devil Walks in Mattingly occur four years before that. Enjoy!
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The End
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one but my wife know of my trips beyond the rusty gate; none but my wife ever will. Kate understands why I must endure this long walk through the forest, miles of bearing up under a heavy feeling of being watched. “Go, Jake,” she will tell me. She will say, “Mind the woods” and “See if someone’s come” and “Be home with Zach and me soon.” And even though the fear in her eyes begs me stay, Kate never asks me to keep away from the Hollow. She knows I must come to this place. It is my duty both as sheriff and as a Barnett. And yet even as I hold my name and station in the highest regard, that is not why I dare enter this wood and strike east and north for the grove. I come to this place of darkness because it is where the light of heaven once touched. I come here for the ones who were saved on a night long ago and for the ones lost. I come because heaven is not without the past. I walk here now just as I walked here on the night of my salvation—uniformed and holding Bessie at my side. The blood on my old tomahawk was wet then, and a color like deep crimson. Now it is no more than a thin line of dulled brown that glimmers in this struggling sun. Aside from that—from me—I find all is as it has always been in this wild and mountainous place. Change may come beyond this wide span of gnarled trees and gray soil, but the Hollow clings to its past and will not yield to the passing of •1•
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time. It endures. That is why I both loathe this land beyond the rusty gate and give thanks for it as well. It is an anchor to hold the world in place. There is no sound here. Neither birds nor crickets sing, and what few animals remain in these thousands of acres are scattered and hidden. The forest is silent—tired. I make for the river and turn back to the forest when I reach the bend. I do not look to the cliffs. I must walk this wood and endure the eyes upon me, but I will never gaze at those cliffs again. It is a place of blood. Beyond river and wood lies the field, and here among the stones and brittle grass I find the only track I’ve seen—an imprint of a front paw sunk in the dirt. I bend and place my arm to the ground. The paw measures nearly the length of my elbow to the tips of my fingers. More than the Hollow has survived unharmed. The bear, too, lives on. The print is fresh, no more than a day old. I look up and scan the trees. I feel eyes and hear whispers but see no movement. Though the bear and I have no quarrel, my grip on Bessie tightens. The trail waits beyond the mass of thick oaks at the field’s edge to my left. I step there, careful to keep between the two lines of stones that guard its sides, and follow it to the hidden grove beyond. Here, too, little has changed. Swollen vines still grow upon the limestone walls, covering what lies behind. The brittle bush in the back still withers in the dead soil and still offers its fruit. And the Hole is still here. I do not know that I expected otherwise. If the Hollow has lived on untouched and the bear still roams this cursed land, then the Hole would surely remain. I suppose it always will, and in that notion lie both Kate’s hope and my purpose. I stand at its mouth and move no closer, will not. To face •2•
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this blackness is to find yourself at once drawn and repulsed, and here more than anywhere else I understand that I am not alone. I ease toward the Hole and bend to my knee, mindful of the stiffening hairs on my arms and neck, mindful of what Kate said before I left. See if someone’s come. There are no marks in the barren earth at the Hole’s mouth. No one and nothing has come. What remains now is the long walk back through a forest empty of what life a man’s eyes can see but filled with what a man’s eyes cannot. But I pause here nonetheless, as I always do, and stand facing the Hole. I do this so I may remember. So I remember true. The townsfolk do not know the truth of Happy Hollow and call it a place of evil. I know its truth and call it a place of memory. I can still picture all of us here—me kneeling in this gray dirt beside Kate, Taylor Hathcock looking on in despair. We were drawn to this place by a dead boy named Phillip McBride, who had haunted my dreams for a month. Even now the people of Mattingly will say Phillip died in the Hollow after throwing himself from the cliffs along the riverbank. Only Taylor, Kate, and I know the truth. There was no suicide. Phillip was murdered. Who killed him was and is an open question, I suppose. Kate would say she ended Phillip’s life. Taylor would say it was me. I would say Taylor had it right. Such is my burden still. The wounds I carry are not unlike the Hollow or the bear or even this Hole in front of me—they may lie hidden, but they are always there. My hurt remains with me. I came into this world pure and unblemished, but I will leave it bearing all of my scars. My comfort rests in a grace that will mold those scars into the jewels of my crown. In many ways the story of what happened is mine. And yet •3•
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I can say it is Kate’s and Taylor’s as well. But at its heart lies Phillip. He made no distinction between those who blamed themselves for his death and the one who killed him. He came back for us all.
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Pa r t I
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sat on the edge of Zach’s bed and stared at the small town of Legos and Matchbox cars that covered the floor. Took us a week of evenings to piece everything together—all the streets and buildings and shops that made up downtown Mattingly and the stretch beyond. Everything had to be just right (Zach would have it no other way), and as such we both still considered it a work in progress. But that night I wasn’t thinking of how the courthouse could use an extra layer of bricks or that there needed to be another window on the Dairy Queen. I only pondered what a good father would say next. All I could manage was a weak, “You know you’re in trouble, right?” Zach lay there and tried to appear indifferent by holding his red blanket as close to his body as possible. The lower lid of his right eye had curdled to a dark and swollen purple. It looked as though an invisible hand was forcing him into an ugly wink. The cut scabbing the slit that bridged the tiny space between his nose and mouth looked no better. It was painful to be sure, though it wasn’t a busted lip and a black eye that held •5•
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my son’s tongue. It was whatever punishment I would levy for his getting them. Zach said, “He had it comin’, Daddy.” “Danny Blackwell.” “Yessir. He was on the playground pullin’ on Allie Granderson’s pigtails. I tole him to stop, Daddy. Twiced. But he dint.” “So you figured you’d just wallop him?” “Nosir, Allie figured she’d wallop’m. But Danny’s got a hard head, and Allie started bawlin’ after, ’cause her hand hurt so bad. An’ then Danny understood he’d just gotten wailed on by a girl, so he started tuggin’ on Allie’s pigtails harder. An’ that’s when we tussled.” I put a hand on the covers above Zach’s knee and felt my shoulders slump. For reasons I couldn’t understand, lately the shoulders were the first to go. Zach saw that slouch. He said nothing and I pretended nothing was wrong, even if there was no hiding my sagging cheeks and the way the skin beneath my eyes looked like tiny potato sacks. “Think what you did was right?” I asked. I believe Zach thought yes. He was smart enough to say no. “I don’t ever want you to go looking for trouble, son. You go looking for trouble, trouble always finds you. Now I appreciate you standing up to a bully, but next time you go tell Miss Cole before you take your fists out. Okay?” “Yessir.” Then, “Is Momma mad?” I said, “Your momma was once a girl like Allie,” and left it at that. Sharing how I’d once caught a boy peeking up Kate’s skirt while she was on the monkey bars would serve no purpose, especially since I’d walloped him a good one that day. “Now it being Friday and you being more in the right, the
•6•
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principal said you can come on to school Monday. But I expect you to make peace.” Zach pursed his lips. “It was real peaceful when Danny was holdin’ his jaw.” I offered a smile filtered through a yawn I couldn’t swallow. “That’s not the peace I mean. Now say your prayers.” Zach closed his left eye to match his right and began with his customary, “Dear God, this’s Zach . . .” His words were soft like a lullaby, and sitting there I felt my body grow heavier. I took a deep breath and pinched my arm. “An’ I’m sorry I whupped Danny Blackwell, God,” Zach finished. “But I reckon I ain’t a whole lot sorry, because he’s plain ornery and IlikeAllieGrandersonjustfineamen.” I smiled again and said, “Amen.” Zach opened his eye and winced. He traced a finger parallel to the cut on his lip. “Reckon I’ll scar, Daddy?” “I think by morning you’ll give your momma a fright, but I doubt you’ll scar.” He reached for the arm I was using to prop myself up and turned it to the lamplight. A thick ridge of pale skin no wider than Zach’s fingernail stretched from just inside my elbow to near my wrist. “I wish I could have a scar like yours,” he said. “It’s cool. Allie says scars make the man.” “I mean to make sure you never have a scar like this,” I whispered. “That’s why we had to have this little talk. Now you get on to sleep.” I bent and kissed Zach’s head, careful of the bad places. What came next were the words I said to my son every night, what every child should hear from his father and what I never heard from my own. “I love you, and I’m proud of you.”
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“Love you and proud too, Daddy.” I stepped over the quiet town lying in shadow on the floor and left Zach to sleep. Kate waited under the covers in the next room. The thick ringed binder that was her constant companion leaned open against her raised knees. Her almond eyes were bunched, and her finger twirled at the ends of hair as black and smooth as a raven’s wing. She might as well have been back in high school, cramming for a test. “Something preying on your mind, miss?” I asked. She looked up from a worn page. “More than one thing. How’d it go?” “As good as it could. He’ll make peace Monday.” She closed the notebook and clicked off her bedside lamp as I eased into bed. “You tell him about coming to my rescue in the second grade when Bobby Barnes tried to get a look at my underwear?” “Seeing as how that would defeat the purpose, I left that part out.” I settled in and added, “Last thing I want is the sins of the father being visited on the son.” I sighed as smells of green grass and Easter breezes rose from the pillow. Frogs sang along a prattling creek beyond the open window. Far away a train whistled as it lumbered through the center of town. I was nearly gone, and I both welcomed and feared the going. Kate took my hand beneath the covers. “Jake Barnett, you are the best man I’ve ever known.” She paused before voicing what else had been preying on her mind: “Will you sleep?” Part of me—the same wishful thinking that would reach for a ringing phone in the middle of the night believing it was just a wrong number—said, “Yes.” “Maybe they’d go away if you just talked to me.” Maybe, I thought. But there had been little talk of they •8•
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in the past weeks, at least on my part, just as there had been little talk of Kate’s notebook over the years on hers. I guess that’s how it is in most marriages. You learn what to talk about and what to leave alone, what to share and what to hold close. We were no different. Our lives both together and apart had taught us the same undeniable fact—secrets make people who they are. I brought our joined hands up, turning mine to kiss hers. “Know what I love most about you?” “Mmm?” “Your hand fits perfect in mine.” With Zach asleep in the next room and Kate nearly there (“Wake me if you need me,” she mumbled, to which I replied I wouldn’t because there would be no need), I struggled for words to send heavenward that would keep Phillip away. Simple prayer hadn’t worked from the beginning, nor the desperate pleas in the weeks that followed. Now it had been a month, and my tired mind was twisted such that I no longer believed grace would end my nightmares, but some magical arrangement of vowels and consonants. I reached beneath the covers and touched Kate’s thigh, hoping her nearness would keep my sleep quiet. Or, if not, that her nearness would shame me into keeping quiet. In many ways, that was the worst part of what I suffered—not the dreams themselves, but those frantic bellows upon waking that betrayed a fear I’d long kept locked inside. I kissed the top of Kate’s head and closed my eyes. The last whisper on my lips was a petition for rest now, rest finally, that I would sleep, and then I wake standing atop the pile of rocks along the riverbank and I know it’s happening, it’s happening again, and no prayer and no wishing can take me from this place—this grave. My home and bed and family are gone, left in some faraway place, and I •9•
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know the distance between where I am and where I was is best measured in time rather than distance. The Hollow lies in late day around me. An orange-red sun licks the tips of an endless sea of gnarled trees rising from the spoiled earth like punished souls. And there are butterflies, butter flies everywhere. White ones, covering the mound of rocks beneath me like fallen snow. They flap their wings opencloseopen in a hot, vapid wind that engulfs me. But even that sight does not frighten me as much as the sight of who lies at my feet. Phillip. Always Phillip. My eyes dip to his sprawled body. The hood of his sweatshirt is pulled tight, hiding his face. His arms and legs splay out at grotesque slants, his right hand reaching for the glasses that have fallen near the swirling river. I fight my thoughts, trying to push away the knowing that Phillip reached for his glasses because he wanted to see, and yet I think it nonetheless because that’s what I thought that day. Beside me, a sharp rock the size of a deflated basketball lies atop the pile. I pick the stone up and lay it on one of Phillip’s broken arms. I turn, knowing another stone has taken the place of the one I just moved, another always does, because this is a nightmare and it’s always this nightmare and please, God, wake me before Phillip speaks. I heft the sharp rock I find at my feet, feeling the strain in my back. It goes over Phillip’s head and face. The next conceals most of his bloody shorts, the stones after cover his legs and feet, on and on, stone after stone, just as I’ve done every night for the last thirty. And just as all those other nights, when I heft the final stone that will cover Phillip forever, I turn to see his body lying fresh upon the others I’ve just laid. And from beneath the sweatshirt’s hood comes a pained voice that is soft and far away: You can’t do it, Jake, he says. • 10 •
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I shrink back in horror. The butterflies twitch and flutter (opencloseopen) and I shake my head NO, NO this cannot be, and I bend to where another stone has appeared. I place it over Phillip’s arm, building the pile ever higher. You can’t, Jake. Do you know why? I weep. I weep because I do know and because Phillip has told me before and he’ll tell me again. Because you’re a dead man, Jake. You’re a dead man and he’s coming and you’ll remember true, because I want an end. I look over my shoulder and around the river’s bend, all the way to where the tall cone of Indian Hill rises beyond. No one is coming. He is, Jake. I’m coming too. I’m coming for you and you’re a dead man. See? I have something for you. Phillip reaches out with the fist I’ve not yet covered. His fingers turn upward to the sky as the white butterflies around us leap. I scream. It is a howling wail swallowed by flapping wings that sound as thunder in the twilight around us. I tumble down the pile of rocks that cannot cover Phillip McBride and run toward the hill, toward home, and though I always say I will not stumble, I always do because I once did. My feet slip and spill me forward, and I feel the skin between the elbow and wrist of my left arm rip open against the rocks. There is no time to lie in shock of the blood that spills from that wound, no time to think of what I’ve done, because Phillip’s heavy footfalls come behind me and I hear him say that he’s coming, he’s coming and I’m dead. His dead hand grabs hold of me, pulling, and I cried out into the pillow beneath my face. The hand on me was Kate’s. It was her screams I heard. Not simply out of fear for me, but for the blood dripping from my scarred left arm. • 11 •
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Kate Barnett let the phone ring three times that next morning, unsure why anyone would squander their Saturday by calling the sheriff’s office on purpose. She eased her left hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn, spotted a dollop of Jake’s dried blood on her fingertips, and wiped them on her jeans. The blood was still there when she brought her hand back and the phone chirped for the second time. By the third, Kate had already replayed the previous night in her thoughts: how she had bandaged her husband’s arm and it had taken her an hour to calm him down, how it had then taken another for Jake to calm her, and how they had both finished the night as they had every night for the past month—her asleep in bed, Jake waiting for the sun from the porch rocker. She picked up the phone before it could ring again and found herself in the middle of her usual “Sheriff’s office, this is Kate.” The voice that greeted her was Timmy Griffith’s, Kate’s brother and owner of the Texaco on the outskirts of town. Their conversation was brief, and Kate said she’d be right over. She tried calling Jake, wanting to ask how he was and where he was and how long he would be, but got only his voicemail. Doc March was at the office, having stopped by at Kate’s request to check Zach’s eye. The doc volunteered to help man phones that likely wouldn’t ring. Zach leaped at the chance to be in charge and bid his mother to go, especially upon his discovery of why his momma was in such a rush. Timmy had a name to give her. Kate made the drive across town to the Texaco and gathered her notebook from the seat of her rusting Chevy truck. She found Timmy waiting behind the counter. He dried his giant paws on a red-and-white checkered apron three sizes too • 12 •
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small. Kate stifled a grin at the bits of chicken breading dangling from the front. Timmy called himself an entrepreneur and the Texaco a modern convenience store. Kate had misgivings about the former (she knew few entrepreneurs who kept both a shotgun and a spit cup under the counter), but she harbored no doubts of the latter. Not that it counted for much, but the Texaco was the most technologically able business in Mattingly. She tilted her chin up and kissed Timmy’s cheek. “I see you’re busy this morning.” “Hey, sis,” Timmy said. “Thanks for coming by.” “Always a pleasure. So you got a name for me?” “I do—Lucy Seekins.” Kate sat the binder atop the counter and flipped through the thick stack of papers. The earliest entries were all but faded and saved from disintegration only by the thick layer of Scotch tape that preserved them. The names on those first pages had been written in a young and idealistic script—i’s dotted with tiny hearts, smiley faces that marked successes— and corresponded to dates that began shortly after Phillip’s death. She turned to a page with 211 scrawled in the upper right corner and wrote Lucy’s name. “Don’t think I know her,” she said. “I’ll have to do some digging.” Timmy said, “No need,” and pointed through the doors behind her. “Lives across the street.” Kate looked up but not around. “The Kingman house?” “The very one. Moved in back before school started. Don’t know much about her daddy, never seen her momma. Divorced, I guess. Lucy’s in here quite a bit, though. Seen that black Beemer around town?” “That’s hers?” • 13 •
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He nodded. “Lucy’s on her own mostly. Dad works. Chased her outta here a few days ago for trying to swipe smokes and drinks. Told her I’d call Jake if I caught her in here again. She’s trouble if I’ve ever seen it. Always got a different boy with her too.” That last bit piqued Kate’s interest. “Who are the boys?” “Johnny Adkins, lately. I told him Lucy was trouble and that I might have to let his daddy know. The rest of ’em?” Timmy shrugged. “You’d know before I would. From what I’ve seen, it’s anyone who’ll give her the time of day. She’s walking a fine line, Katie. Just go talk to her. You don’t have to do any sneaking about.” Kate tapped her fingernails on the counter. She certainly felt sorry for the girl (which wasn’t saying much, Kate generally felt sorry for everyone), but she knew there was little she could offer. Folk who drove fancy cars and lived in fancy houses were not the sort Kate tended to. Still, it was a name. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.” Timmy beamed. It was all white teeth and pink gums. “Still coming tonight?” Kate asked. “Might be late, but I’ll be there.” “Good. Call me later.” Kate pecked her brother’s cheek again and left, waving to the driver of an old John Deere as she pulled out and across the road. Her truck kicked up a cloud of dust against a clear morning sky as it pulled up Kingman Hill. She stopped at the mouth of a large driveway in the shadow of the towering maples and magnolias that circled the old stone manor. A cobbled walk led to a set of massive concrete steps. A ten-speed bicycle stood there, its tires worn and its handlebars duct taped. Kate climbed the steps to a wide porch and took in her surroundings. There were • 14 •
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no rocking chairs or swings from which to enjoy the view, which covered not only the Texaco but most of Mattingly’s downtown and the mountains beyond. The lawn was thick and lush and bore no signs of play. The old flower gardens lay barren. The bicycle below her seemed the only thing on the hill that had recently been used. Kate was reaching for the brass knocker when the front door flung open, jarring both her and the half-naked boy about to step out. Their eyes met in a moment of panicked recognition. “Johnny?” she asked. The boy twisted away, fumbling with his jeans. Kate stepped back and turned away, but not before noticing the logo above the left front pocket and how new those jeans were. That it was Johnny Adkins was bad enough. That Johnny was nearly naked and trying to pull on a pair of Wranglers Kate herself had left on his front porch two weeks before was worse. She waved her notebook over her eyes like a shield. “Hey, Mrs. B.” Kate heard him stumble for what she hoped was his shirt (and one she hoped she hadn’t bought along with the jeans). “Sorry. Didn’t . . . didn’t know that was you. Or anybody. Sorry.” A sweaty wind passed her, followed by the sound of bare feet padding down the steps and the click of a kickstand. Then came the sound of two worn rubber tires and a shaky, “Sorry, Mrs. B,” as Johnny scampered away. Only then did Kate look— not back to him, but to the open door in front of her. She took a deep breath to remind herself this was a name and it was page 211 (more, the bottom of page 211, which meant 212 was close), and called, “Hello? Lucy?” No answer came. Kate stepped through the doorway into a grand foyer dominated by an antique grandfather clock. She • 15 •
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heard singing from the room to her left, high-pitched and off key—the voice of someone trying too hard to sound too good. Kate looked into what she found was a living room. Several wing chairs and a love seat had been tastefully placed around a large leather sofa. Pillows covered the thick carpet. A stone hearth dominated almost the entire far wall, beside which was the biggest television Kate had ever seen. She passed her eyes over that briefly. What had her attention at the moment was the wooden mantel above the hearth. The collection of framed pictures there unsettled her in a way she could not define. She turned toward the movement in the corner of her right eye and saw a young girl facing a mirror in the opposite corner, swaying to music piped through a pair of hot-pink earphones. Only one of her eyes and half of her nose and mouth were visible through the glass. She was short for her age, with a head of long and full auburn hair. Her legs were thick, almost stubby, and connected to hips Kate thought destined to grow east and west as the years went on. The left back pocket of her shorts hung inside out and limp. Her white polo shirt hitched up in the back, exposing bulging love handles and a back the color of chalk. To Kate, the girl looked like someone who longed to be pretty and knew she never would be. She had yet to see Kate in the doorway, focusing instead on taming her hair with gentle, almost loving caresses of the brush in her hand. She turned the bristles down and brought the handle to her mouth (This girl thinks she’s Martina McBride, Kate thought) when her eyes met Kate’s through the mirror. The brush dropped. She spun around. “Lucy Seekins?” Kate asked. The girl retreated a step and thumped her heel against the wall’s molding. Kate switched her notebook to her left hand and held her right up. • 16 •
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“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to scare you. Are you Lucy Seekins?” A nod. “What are you doing in my house?” “I knocked,” Kate said. “Guess you didn’t hear me over your music. You’ve a lovely voice.” It was a small lie, one Kate hoped would smooth things over. Lucy didn’t appear thankful. “I’m sorry,” Kate said again. “I’m just a little flustered, I guess. I saw Johnny Adkins leaving. He was all . . .” Kate shook her head. “Bared and . . . well, Johnny knows me.” Lucy winked. “Well, I’d say Johnny knows me a little better now. He’s my boyfriend, you see. Miss . . .” “Barnett,” Kate said. “Kate Barnett.” Lucy backed away from the wall. She straightened herself as though remembering this was her house. “Maybe you should tell me why you’re here, Ms. Barnett. Otherwise I’m sure you can find your way out, seeing as how you found your way in.” Kate moved to the sofa and then thought better of it, considering the slanted cushions and tossed pillows she found there. She took one of the high-back chairs near the window instead. A stack of books sat upon the small end table beside her. Kate studied them. “Your daddy a philosophy buff? Never could understand that stuff myself.” “They’re mine,” Lucy said, “and please don’t touch them.” Kate didn’t. “Pretty heavy reading for someone your age. They for school?” “No, for me. We all need to get our answers from somewhere, Ms. Barnett.” Lucy bent for her brush. “Where do you get yours?” “Church, I suppose.” • 17 •
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Lucy straightened and rolled her eyes. “You’re not here to give me Jesus, are you? Because I’m afraid I’ll just stick to my books. Church brings God down to man. I’m more interested in what lifts man to God.” Kate said nothing to this, though she thought that sort of thinking could do more damage to a young lady than any half-naked boy could manage. She also thought things could be going worse, but she didn’t know how. “I just wanted to introduce myself,” Kate said, “tell you a little about what I do.” Her eyes found the pictures on the mantel again. Mother, father, Lucy. Or at least a younger version of her. “I know you and your family are still new to town. I work out of the sheriff’s office. Jake’s my husband—” “You mean the cowboy who thinks he’s an Indian?” Kate bristled at the way Lucy asked that, as though it were the punch line of some joke. Lucy crossed the room and sat on the sofa. She spread her arms along the cushions, massaging them like a memory. “Yes,” Kate said. “Jake. I work in an unofficial capacity. I guess you could say I tend to the needs of folk in and around town in sort of a . . . spiritual way.” “Isn’t that like a violation of church and state or something?” Lucy asked. “Well, I don’t know, honey, politics doesn’t count for much here. Mayor Wallis doesn’t seem to mind, and I don’t get paid for what I do.” “You work for free?” Lucy shook her head, but there was something in that quick turn that was more than disbelief. Kate thought it may have been admiration. “My father’d call you crazy.” “It isn’t work,” Kate said. “I see it more as fate. It’s my destiny.” “What’s that like?” • 18 •
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“Not working?” “No,” Lucy said. “Having a destiny.” The question caught Kate by surprise, and for a moment she thought Lucy had asked it in the same tone she’d asked Kate if her husband was the cowboy who pretended to be an Indian. But then Kate realized Lucy had stopped massaging the couch cushions and that wry smile she’d been sporting was gone. She truly wanted an answer, and the thought humbled Kate. No one had ever asked her what it felt like to do the things she did, not even Jake. And though she expected Lucy wanted to hear something else besides the truth, the truth was what Kate would give her. “It’s like being trapped in a room without windows and wondering if it’s day or still night.” Lucy nodded as though she understood. “Well, I really don’t get why you’re here, Mrs. Barnett. As you can see, I’m not in need, spiritual or otherwise.” Kate almost told Lucy she was in need of both, that girls stuck alone in big houses who give themselves away to boys weren’t just wanting, they were reaching. The problem was she knew Lucy didn’t realize it yet, couldn’t. “My brother asked me to come. Timmy Griffith? He owns the Texaco down the hill.” Lucy sniggered. “That guy’s your brother? Then I’m afraid you’re just wasting your time. All that man wants to do is get me in trouble and take Johnny away. So now I’m thinking maybe you should just leave, if you don’t mind. My dad will be home soon, and he won’t be here long. I should get ready.” “I understand,” Kate said. She rose from the chair, her mind divided between sadness over not being able to help Lucy after all and relief that her visit was over. “But Timmy doesn’t want to get you in trouble, Lucy. If he did, he’d have called my husband • 19 •
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instead of me.” She tore a piece of paper from the back of her notebook and wrote Jake’s cell number. “I don’t have a phone myself, but the town thinks Jake should have one. Take this. Sometimes people need more than clothes and food. If you ever do, call me. Jake and I would love to have you and your parents over for supper. Welcome you to Mattingly proper, even if it’s a little late.” Kate held the paper out. Lucy rose from the sofa and took it. She folded the page and put it in the front pocket of her shorts. “When my father’s here, I’d rather keep him to myself,” she said. “And my mom died a long time ago. Now if you’ll excuse me.” Kate didn’t wait for Lucy Seekins to show her out. She said her good-bye and left, but not before casting a final look at the mantel. There were pictures of Lucy at various ages, pictures of the man Kate took to be Lucy’s occasional father and the young woman who must have borne her, pictures of Lucy and her father and her father with his wife. But none of the fourteen photos on the mantelpiece was of Lucy and her mother. That small observation told Kate much. No wonder the couch cushions were slanted.
•
3•
The idea of calling on Jenny had come to me late the night before, sometime after I’d awakened terrified and bleeding and before the first rays of the sun eased their way over the mountains. That idea should have been dismissed outright, but in the darkness of early morning even the worst notion can take on a sheen of good common sense. I left before Kate or Zach • 20 •
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woke (wanting to avoid the lie of telling them I was going to do anything but break the very law I’d been sworn to uphold) and drove out to Hollis and Edith Devereaux’s farm, just down from the hill country on Route 664. I parked behind their old barn and made the long slog up to where a plowed line marked the boundary of field and forest. Standing there, I was confronted by the foolishness of my coming unannounced. A warning at least would have been prudent, maybe even necessary. Tromping through Hollis’s woods was akin to taking your own life into your hands. After all, this wasn’t the Devereauxs’ front porch. This was Jenny’s place. I stood there trying to blink away the tired from my eyes and thought, Tomorrow. If I dreamed again tonight, I’d come back tomorrow. Then I thought of the white butterflies and the stones piled upon stones. I thought of Phillip’s words and his dead hand upon me and looked at the bandage on my arm. What kind of dream opens an old scar? Makes you bleed again? I didn’t know, but I knew it was the sort of dream I didn’t want to endure again. I looked back toward the farmhouse to make sure Edith wasn’t hanging clothes or feeding the chickens and slipped through the trees. A worn path stood just inside. I followed it deeper into the thick woods and slowed myself, stepping only when a bird sang or a squirrel chirred and only to where the ground was hard and leafless, reaching out with my eyes and ears for anything that might be skulking about. Not that it did any good. It didn’t matter how hard I tried, every part of me had dulled by then. That’s what happens when you get two, maybe three hours of sleep every night for a month. I didn’t hear the movement to my right until it was almost on top of me. I crouched close to a dark boulder to my left and took off my hat, clutching it as Zach had his blanket • 21 •
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the night before. Sweat poured from my face and arms. My heart jackhammered. “Hollis?” I called. “That you in there?” The answer was a shotgun round chambered. I dove behind the boulder as the woods exploded around me in a shower of limbs and leaves. Fear charged forward like a wild animal finally broken free of its cage. I sank into the earth and gritted my teeth, fighting to hold my bladder. A voice boomed, “Get off’a my land,” followed by another spray of buckshot that nearly grazed my ear. I reached to the small of my back, felt nothing. Now a deeper panic set in, one in which being shot at played only a small part. Of all the things I could have been thinking then, only one gripped me— I’d left Bessie in the truck, and wouldn’t Daddy have given me an earful for that? I screamed, “Hollis, you put that scatter-gun down.” The woods stilled. Cautious footsteps from among the trees, then fast, then a pause. And then came what may well have been the sweetest words I’d ever heard: “Jake? That you?” I raised my hands and then myself from behind the rock, pulling my fingers into my palms and squeezing them still. I much preferred the smell of gunpowder and the taste of earth than Hollis seeing me scared. I spoke deep and even: “I don’t want no trouble, Hollis.” It was easy to see how the old man in front of me could have snuck up on me so easy. A morning’s worth of farming had left Hollis’s blue overalls a smudgy brown that blended his potbelly with the woods. A faded black Dale Earnhardt cap was pulled down over his ears. Even the nicotine-stained whiskers around his mouth were a kind of camouflage. The rest of his face turned three shades whiter when he saw me. • 22 •
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“Lord have mercy,” he said. Hollis lowered the shotgun and jogged to me in a herkyjerky old-man way. I dropped my arms and bent for my hat, aware that my legs were about to give way. Thankfully, Hollis picked it up for me. He handed it over as though it were his very life. I breathed easier. Not because of his show of respect, but because Hollis’s own trembling body meant he was not aware of my own. “You could’ve kilt me, Jake. Could’ve shorn my head clean off.” I spoke the truth: “Bessie’s in the truck.” Then the lie: “Didn’t think I’d need her.” Hollis pulled a red bandana from the front pocket of his overalls and wiped his brow. He exhaled a laugh. “Ain’t nobody supposed to be up here for ’nother hour. I thought you was the law.” “I am the law, Hollis.” “Oh, I know, I know y’are.” Eager to make things right. “I mean the real law. You know”—he pointed a finger skyward and made three tight circles—“the ones with the hellycopters. Not like you, Jake. You unnerstand the way of things.” I smiled—smiling seemed best, as it was the furthest thing from how I felt—and said, “No harm. Just thought I’d come by and see what Jenny has.” Hollis flinched. It was small and quick but noticeable. He scratched at his beard. “How you know about Jenny, Jake?” “Been in this town all my life, Hollis. Everybody but Edith knows about Jenny.” The old man’s body went limp. The boulder caught him just before I did. Blood left his face despite the morning heat, leaving ashen patches of skin on his cheeks. “You ain’t fixing to take me in, are ya, Jake? I know keeping • 23 •
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Jenny ain’t Christlike, but I lost near all our crop in the drought last year. An’ beef prices . . .” Hollis shook his head, pleading. “Jenny gets us through.” “Ain’t here to take you in, Hollis.” My next words came out a syllable at a time in the hope that I could tell him what I needed without actually saying it. “I just wanted to see what Jenny . . . has.” The dimmer switch in Hollis’s brain went from soft to bright. “You old dog.” He smiled and poked me with an elbow. I tried smiling back but found I was fresh out. “Foller me. Jenny’s right up yonder.” He led me on through the pines beyond, which opened to a small clearing where countless footsteps had mashed the fallen needles into wispy dust. Three large copper pots sat beneath a moldy gray tarp along the far edge. The first and third pots were large, the second smaller. Each was connected to the others by a series of copper piping. A fire burned beneath the first pot, fed by stacks of nearby oak. A filtered bucket sat beneath a tap on the last, ready for dispensing. Hollis beamed like a proud papa. He led me to four wooden crates stacked beside a small pile of paisley dish towels. “Best moonshine in the valley, Jake. Guaranteed to put you more at ease than anythin’ you’ll get down to the Texaco. Got some peach here. Good vintage too.” “What’s the vintage?” Hollis grinned. “Yest’day. How many you need?” I started to ask how much moonshine it would take to chase away a dead boy and an army of white butterflies. I settled on, “One’ll do.” Hollis fetched a jar from the top crate and wrapped it in one of the dish towels. He handed the bundle over and said, “That’s ten bucks.” • 24 •
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I dug into my pocket and fished out a small wad of folded bills, then promptly dropped it at my feet. I bent to pick it up and wobbled as I stood. Hollis watched, biting his bottom lip. “What?” I asked. “Don’t mean to pry, Jake. It’s just that you ain’t looking so good. If you don’t mind me saying. Seen your bandage there.” I followed his eyes to my left arm. “Just a scratch.” “Everything all right with Katie an’ Zach?” I handed over the money and said, “Yep.” “Cain’t be work. Nothin’ ever happens in Mattingly.” “Work’s fine too.” “Must be your daddy, then,” Hollis said, and then his eyes widened as he realized it couldn’t be unsaid. For the past seven years there seemed to have been a silent agreement within the town that the subject of my father would never be discussed, at least in the presence of me or Kate, and especially with Zach. Hollis kicked a small rock by his feet. “Sorry for your loss, Jake. Don’t think I ever tole you that. Your daddy near ran this town. His leavin’ was hard on a lotta folk, but I reckon on you an’ Kate especially. Weren’t a better man. If you don’t mind me saying.” I did mind. I said I didn’t. Hollis was a good man, and I just wanted to go. Get some coffee somewhere. Try to wake up from another night’s sleep that Phillip hadn’t allowed. I raised the jar and walked for the trees. “Thanks, Hollis. I’ll see you.” “Hey, Jake? Always ask my customers if their jar’s for rememberin’ or forgettin’.” Phillip echoed in my head (You’re a dead man and he’s coming and you’ll remember true, because I want an end) and I tried to push him away, tried clinging to the belief • 25 •
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those dreams were no different from any others, mere ramblings of an unsettled mind. I tried to tell myself there was no he coming, I was in no danger, and that the end Phillip spoke of was merely a deep-seated desire to lay down my own guilt. I tried. And I may have even believed it. But I didn’t believe it much. What I did believe was that Phillip had been wrong about one thing. There was no need for me to “remember,” because I’d never forgotten what I did to him along the riverbank that day and never would. I wore that memory like a heavy chain around my heart. I pressed on it as one would press on a bruise to see if it still hurt. I turned and said, “Forgetting.” Hollis nodded as though mine was the usual answer.
•
4•
Few people knew of Charlie Givens. Those who did agreed that not only was he born to trouble, but the sole purpose of his head was to keep rain out of his neck. Yet even Charlie’s leaden mind understood the dangers involved in his monthly trips to visit Taylor Hathcock in Happy Hollow. It wasn’t so much that most all of the Hollow was either lifeless or empty, or even that everyone in the county knew every inch of that dark wood was accursed. It was the eyes. Charlie could never step past the rusty gate without feeling those eyes on him. Watching. Waiting. He didn’t know exactly what that steady gaze watched or waited for (nor did Charlie ever ponder what devilry lay behind it), but there was a certain comfort in those unanswerables. Ignorance may not have equaled bliss down in the world, but it certainly • 26 •
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